The next day after they found the egg, Ben go to train in the cave like usual. Wendy won't join the training until the egg hatch, so he will train alone. But when he arrive in the cave, he find another egg inside. This egg have similar motif with Wendy's, but the marking colour is orange with black outline.
"Strange, there's no creatures that live here, but there is an egg. It's also similar with the one that we found yesterday. Could it be that these eggs are the same species? Or maybe their parents are the same too? But why were they placed in different locations?"-Ben get very confused
"Sigh, forget it! I'll just take this egg with me later and ask Wendy to keep it too. Maybe it's a Griffon egg, that will be very cool."-Ben rub his chin.
Ben leave his thought and start training. He take off his shirt and wrap it around the egg. He place the egg at the side near the lacrima crystals with his bag. Then he leave the egg alone and start training.
After the training, Ben return to the village with the egg. He report it to Roubaul and the old man agree to let Wendy take care of it. Of course Wendy is happy with another egg to be kept. She is like a mother hen who finally have fertile eggs.
Days passed and it went like usual, except the fact that they have 2 eggs to be hatched. Wendy take care of the eggs carefully, and they place the eggs on a made up nest made from straws and cloths. Then after 3 weeks, the eggs finally hatched.
When they see the eggs start to crack, everyone gather to look at it. Then sometime later, the first egg that they've found hatched. But what come out from the egg really surprised them.
"..... A cat?"-Ben is dumbfounded
The thing that came out from the egg is surprisingly a cat, a kitten. It's a white kitten with big head, and pink ears. It's body is also bigger than normal kitten. It might be as big as an adult cat right now.
"Ben nii-san, it's a cat. Amazing!"-Wendy
"Y-yeah, i know. Then, this other egg is also a cat egg?"-Ben
Just when Ben finished his words, the other egg also crack, then soon it hatch. Without any other surprise, the one who come out from the egg is a cat. This cat's color is orange with black stripes like a tiger. It also has kuudere type face, especially the calm, yet sharp eyes.
( I'm suck at drawing, so i'll just give you my reference. Image: https://images.app.goo.gl/9stDx5bwsdB9gxjV8 )
"Are they male or female? I can't differentiate cat's sex."-Ben
"Both of them are female, so now you can choose female name for them."-Roubaul
"Ooh, as i thought from a fossil who have lived for milennia, you know every-"-Ben
*BONK* Roubaul knock Ben's head because he get pissed.
"Differentiating a cat's sex isn't that hard. Go on, Wendy! Give her a name!"-Roubaul
"Hmm, i'll name it Carla. What about yours Ben nii-san?"-Wendy
"You can name it if you want."-Ben get up with a bump on his head
"No, it's your partner, so you should name it yourself."-Wendy
"Hmm, i'm not that good at naming something. How about Tigress?"-Ben
Ben remember the Kung-Fu Panda's Tigress, and it resemble her tiger like motif. But his uncreative name make everyone look at him with stinky eyes, even his cat too. The cat doesn't have a change in expression, but Ben can feel her feeling from her eyes.
"Come on, don't look at me like that! Hmm, how about Bella, so we'll have the same initial?"-Ben
The cat nod after a moment and Ben sigh in relief. But when he just get relieved, Ben is surprised once more. Bella suddenly spread a pair of white wings and fly toward his head. Then she land on his head and ruffling his hair like she make a nest.
"S-she can fly? Then Carla can fly too?"-Wendy
Carla seem to realize Wendy's gaze and she also fly with her wings to Wendy's head.
"Hoo, these cats can use magic instantly after their birth. Marvelous!"-Roubaul
"That mean we can train them to use magic like mages?"-Ben
"I don't know, you can try it later. But usually magical creatures have their own magic that will be activated as they grow up."-Roubaul
"Hmm, well, we can try it slowly in the future. For now, i need to train. Wendy, can you take care of Bella while i train?"-Ben
"Okay~, now i can play with Carla & Bella, hehehe."-Wendy
Ben grab Bella and put her down in front if Wendy. But Bella is holding his hand tightly and didn't want to let go.
"It seem she want to follow you."-Wendy
"It won't be interesting to see me training you know."-Ben
Bella didn't care and climb Ben's hand until she reach his hair again.
"Sigh, fine. Don't say that i'm not warning you later!"-Ben
Ben leave the building and go to the cave to train. Before he leave, he grab some bottle of milk for Bella to drink later. When he reach the crystal room, Ben put Bella down near a crystal.
She didn't object now and just sit there while looking around at the crystals. Ben start to train like usual, and Bella is playing with the crystals. She seem to be interested in the lacrima crystals.
"You like it? I found you in this room before, so that might be the reason why you like it, huh?"-Ben
Bella take a piece of crystal that left after Ben & Wendy harvested in the past. She play around with it like it's a rubber ball. She get excited, and Ben can see it from her glittering eyes. Ben let her play and train while talking to her.
"I guess you're Carla's little sister now because you hatched after her. But i don't know if you have the same parents though. Heck, i don't even know what's your species, even Gramps didn't know it."-Ben
*Groowl~*
Ben suddenly hear Bella's stomach growl, so he stop his training and take a bottle of milk. He want to pour it on a bowl, but Bella take the bottle and drink it directly. She look excited even if her face didn't change much, only her eyes are glittering.
"Well, i guess i don't need to buy a pacifier now."-Ben
Ben continue his training, and Bella play again. She get hungry again after an hour, but now she take the milk bottle herself. At the end of the training, Bella have drank all 10 bottles that Ben brought this morning, and she will drink some more tonight.
".... I don't know if you're very hungry or just really like the milk."-Ben
Ben return to the village and just like he thought, Bella drink 12 more bottles of milk that night. Now Ben is sure that Bella really like milk, because Carla just drank 3 bottles yesterday.
"We really need to raise cows to produce milk."-Ben
"You want to buy them?"-Roubaul
"Yeah, that's the most possible thing. We haven't found any cow in the forest, it's not their habitat anyway. Beside, wild animals aren't easy to be tamed."-Ben
"Can't we just buy the milk like before?"-Wendy
"If we keep buying the milk, it will be tiring to go to that village everyday. That village is far, and we only go there on Sunday."-Ben
Ben & Wendy have gone to the nearby village last Sunday to buy milk. It's just a small village that have a big cow farm. But even if it's the nearest village, it's still far in distance. The distance is around 20 km, and it take an hour for them to reach it by walking & running through the forest.
"Raising a farm need time too, and it's not that easy, boy. Rather than buying the cows, how if you buy a vehicle to carry more milk? We can preserve it in a cold room so it will last for a week. That way you just need to buy the milk at your day off."-Roubaul
"Vehicle?"-Ben
"Yeah, a magic vehicle. Well, i can help you build it, but we don't have the materials. So why not just buy the already made one?"-Roubaul
"It will be very expensive, right? Can we really afford it?"-Ben
"Don't worry, i have some friends that can help us."-Roubaul
"Ooh, you have such connection? That's good then. Just tell your friends that i'll pay the debt with it's interest in the future after i can take outside job."-Ben
"Alright."-Roubaul
The problem has been solved now, so they can get more relax. Ben then leave to hunt with Bella, while Wendy stay in the village to play with Carla.
"Alright baby girl, let's get a lot of meat!"-Ben
Bella respond by patting his head with her paw, then they go to hunt. There's no problem with the hunt, and Ben get a big kill today. He killed a very big boar, that height around 3 meters, width 2 meters, and length 5 meters. Ben can't lift it without Wendy's enchantment, so he pull it by it's tusk.
That night, they use the boar to celebrate Carla & Bella's birth that haven't been celebrated yesterday. The party goes merrily, with Bella dancing randomly like Ben. She doesn't show much change in expression, but her happiness can be seen by everyone. On the other hand, Carla just sit calmly with Wendy.
"It seem their pairings are not wrong."-Roubaul
All in all, it's such a happy day.
______________________________________________________________
Support me on Pa_treon if you like my story and want to read some chapters ahead. It will help me to buy internet data too.
I've upload Chapter 25 there today.
https://www.pa_treon.com/CaptMermain
(the web didn't use _underscore_, it's to avoid censorship)